Weekly Report & Reflection Post #1

Hi everyone!

Today for my weekly report and reflection post I will be discussing digital footprints. A digital footprint is an accumulation of all the digital tracks you leave behind. This week I learned just how important one’s digital footprint is, and the positive and negative effects it can have on a person’s reputation. Although you cannot control having a digital footprint, since you have one from even before you are born in the form of medical records, you do have the power to control if that footprint is positive or negative. After some searching on the Internet, I found a video called Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint that I found quite eye opening and somewhat frightening about how much of our information is recorded. This video provides helpful tips on how to control your digital footprint, some of which are not sharing passwords, turning off the location settings on your cellphone, setting your social media accounts to ‘private’ so you can decide who sees your profiles, and lastly, and most importantly, taking a moment to think before you post.

Who's Tracking Your Digital Footprint? (January 6, 2015). Digital Footprint (Online Image) Retrieved from <http://tpr.org/post/views-brews-whos-tracking-your-digital-footprint

When I was younger I never thought of the repercussions that frivolous posting could have on my life and how important one’s digital footprint was, until it got me into trouble. This is when I began to take notice of my digital footprint and began to post with more thought. As I got older I began to think before I posted everything and I would ask myself “Would you be embarrassed or ashamed if an employer saw this?” and if the answer was yes, I would refrain from posting it. Although this is only a small part of controlling the effect of your digital footprint I find it very effective.

This leads in to the next topic of discussion: netiquette. Netiquette, or network etiquette, is a list of rules that one should follow to behave in an appropriate manner on the Internet. We were provided a website in this course that outlined the major rolls of netiquette. Some of the rules are share expert knowledge, respect other people’s privacy, and don’t abuse your powers. But the rule I believe to be most important is remembering the human. It is important to remember that although you are not in a face-to-face conversation with the person, you can still hurt their feelings. There are two golden rules associated with this netiquette rule, the first being “do unto others as you’d have others do unto you” and “if you would not say it to their face, do not type it on the keyboard.”  Netiquette relates very closely to one’s digital footprint. If you adhere to the rules of netiquette you will be on the right track towards a positive digital footprint

One of the activities for his week was to complete the “Digital Driver’s License” exam in our textbook “Digital Citizenship in Schools.” This exam had one question about different aspects of the digital world ranging from digital manners (or netiquette), to digital business, digital trust, and digital protection. I learned a lot about digital protection, relating to health and wellness. I had not ever considered that one needs to be conscious of the effects the digital world can have on their health and wellness and I hope to further explore the dangers and effects of the internet on a person and ways to be much more conscious about this. As a student I believe this is very important as we spend a lot of time on computers.

Overall, this week I learned about the importance of being aware of how one behaves on the Internet.

That’s it for this week!

Emma